Meet David Simonarson, Co-Founder and CEO at Gen-Z-Focused Dating App: Smitten

Smitten is a dating app founded in Iceland by myself and my Co-Founder, Asgeir Visir, who is our Chief Product Officer. We started Smitten in 2020 when we recognised that dating apps had become stale; people were mindlessly swiping without any real idea of who they were matching with. The joy had been sucked out of dating, and we wanted to change that.

Smitten makes dating fun again with a combination of in-app games and ice-breaking questionnaires, which not only make using the app entertaining but enables users to find out far more about their potential matches beyond simply what they look like.
 
 

 

What do you think makes this company unique?

 
Smitten is fun, it’s engaging, it’s interactive, and it gets users talking to their matches; 60% of Smitten matches turn into conversations, whilst on Tinder, this figure is around 10%.

Beyond the number of features that set us apart from ‘legacy’ dating apps, such as our automatic ‘cobwebbing’ feature which removes old matches after seven days (unless both parties flick the ‘Extend’ to carry on chatting), the true magic of Smitten is the company culture that is imbued in the app itself. Everyone here is passionate about making the world a better place, and we love to have fun. That makes for an amazing workplace environment, which is reflected in all facets of our output.
 

 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

 
Since starting out in Iceland, we’ve launched in Denmark, Sweden, and, at the tail end of last year, the UK.

We’ve come a long way in a short time. Less than two years ago, Asgeir and I, along with our amazing CTO, Magnus Olafsson, were only a three-man army trying to make waves in the tech world. Now, we have 22 employees across four markets, with almost 100,000 monthly active users and are about to reach $2M in annual recurring revenue.

Smitten has been responsible for roughly 100,00 dates, 10,000 relationships, numerous children, and even some marriages. We are pretty proud to have had such a positive impact on the world.
 

What can we hope to see from Smitten in the future?

 
We are a young company, though rapidly expanding. We are planning on entering new markets throughout 2023 as well as cementing our status as Gen Z’s favourite dating app in existing ones.

If the past is any indicator for the future, 2023 will be an unforgettable year filled with good times, fun events, creative features and a whole lot of love!